Five Opportunities To Showcase Your Confidence

BY MELINA BRUM

Whether you feel incompetent, less experienced, or like an utter failure, use these five tips to feel more confident in your career.

Although various factors can affect your self-esteem in the office, there are effective ways to feel more confident in your career.

Many people face self-confidence issues in their personal life, which can therefore translate into the workplace. There are many reasons why people might feel insecure in their profession and it’s not entirely abnormal.

Maybe you feel as though you are incompetent at certain tasks, less experienced than your coworkers, lacking required skills, or perhaps you just don’t believe in yourself enough.

In order to combat unwanted insecurities, it’s essential to take the 5 following tips into consideration.

The first step is to rewire your thought process of how confidence works. Confidence needs to stop being looked at as a feeling or an inherited trait — it is simply a skill.

This is good news because it means it can be worked on. Many individuals look at confidence as something they just don’t have; you need to realize that self-assurance is something that needs to be strengthened with determination.

Do not put yourself in a box and label your low self-confidence as a personality trait, because it’s not. Start by creating ideas, listening to yourself, and trusting yourself. This in turn will allow others to listen and trust you as well.

Basically, without being overly centered, only focus on yourself in the workplace. Stay on task and make your hard work the ultimate priority. Practice removing yourself from senseless elements that arise in the office (or outside of it), such as gossip, controversial topics—or people, and other common distractions.

Comparison is known to be the thief of joy, a waste of time, and totally counterproductive. Don’t compare yourself to your colleagues. Make a habit of dedicating your time to bettering yourself, this goes for both your personal and professional life.

Don’t shut down constructive criticism with a defense mechanism. This is easier said than done and whether you agree with what you hear or not, it’s important to remain open to feedback. You’ve heard it before… Learn to not take everything so personally.

Constructive advice should be solely used to help improve your work and allow you to learn something new. Different perspectives other than your own exist and it’s essential to recognize and accept the fact rather than reject it. In fact, an effective way to approach this is to ask for feedback regularly.

The truth is, no one possesses every notable strength and we all have our weaknesses. In society, it’s often expected to flaunt your strengths and frown upon your weaknesses. A confident candidate understands that nobody is ever going to be perfect and owns both their good qualities and their flaws.

Definitely integrate your strengths into your daily productivity because when you lead with what you’re good at, your confidence boosts.

As for weaknesses, don’t avoid them, but rather work on strengthening them instead. If it’s hard for you to excel at certain things, it is okay to accept that. It’s extremely important to remember that you’re highly capable of so many things. Once your confidence grows, you will begin to realize your capability.

Whatever you do, do not highlight your weaknesses — or any negativity for that matter.

This one is extremely important, for more reasons than you’d think. Setting boundaries and saying ‘no’ to things you cannot take on, emotionally or physically, is a vital step in recognizing your self-worth. In your career, you will come across many different obstacles, some more difficult than others.

First, understand the predicament you are in and if it is suitable to put your foot down, do so accordingly.

Of course, saying ‘no’ doesn’t come very easily to a lot of us. Understand that it’s okay to set boundaries and look out for yourself, who else is going to if you don’t? Do yourself a favor and practice saying ‘no’ even if it takes some time to build up the courage.

This article was written by Melina Brum and originally appeared on See Girl Work.